Public companies who have a significant stake must be disappointed along with institutions after TechTarget, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:TTGT) market cap dropped by US$73m

Key Insights

• TechTarget's significant public companies ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public
• Informa plc owns 58% of the company
• Insiders have bought recently

A look at the shareholders of TechTarget, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTGT) can tell us which group is most powerful. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are public companies with 58% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

While institutions who own 21% came under pressure after market cap dropped to US$1.2b last week,public companies took the most losses.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of TechTarget.

Check out our latest analysis for TechTarget

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About TechTarget?

Many institutions measure their performance against an index that approximates the local market. So they usually pay more attention to companies that are included in major indices.

We can see that TechTarget does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. This implies the analysts working for those institutions have looked at the stock and they like it. But just like anyone else, they could be wrong. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at TechTarget's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

TechTarget is not owned by hedge funds. Informa plc is currently the company's largest shareholder with 58% of shares outstanding. This essentially means that they have extensive influence, if not outright control, over the future of the corporation. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 5.7% and 3.8%, of the shares outstanding, respectively.

While studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock's expected performance. There are a reasonable number of analysts covering the stock, so it might be useful to find out their aggregate view on the future.

Insider Ownership Of TechTarget

The definition of company insiders can be subjective and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. The company management answer to the board and the latter should represent the interests of shareholders. Notably, sometimes top-level managers are on the board themselves.

Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group.

We can report that insiders do own shares in TechTarget, Inc.. This is a big company, so it is good to see this level of alignment. Insiders own US$49m worth of shares (at current prices). If you would like to explore the question of insider alignment, you can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 16% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies.

Public Company Ownership

We can see that public companies hold 58% of the TechTarget shares on issue. We can't be certain but it is quite possible this is a strategic stake. The businesses may be similar, or work together.

Next Steps:

While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. Like risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 3 warning signs for TechTarget (of which 2 are potentially serious!) you should know about.

If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss this free report on analyst forecasts.

NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.